The extent to which relatives and adult children can help and assist elderly in the future, has been outlined as one of the major challenges to handle in the ageing society. In this article, attitudes towards adult children helping their elderly parents were compared between two countries (Spain and Sweden), described as belonging to a strong and a weak family area. This study takes its point of departure from the intergenerational ambivalence perspective, contrasting intergenerational solidarity with self-interests. The source material is derived from the International Social Survey Progamme in 2012. The analysis reveals that a vast majority of Swedish and Spanish citizens perceived that adult children are an important source of help. In both countries, respondent’s age contributed to the differences in attitudes toward informal help, where individuals aged 50-64 years old to a lesser extent perceived adult children as an important source of help. Regarding gender, the results shows that the more time women spent taking care of the elderly, sick, and children, the less positive their attitudes were toward the statement that adult children are an important source of help. The study concludes that the farther one is from actually fulfilling the caregiver role and the lower the expectation is to actually help ageing parents, the stronger the attitude is toward informal help, and vice versa. The study stresses the importance of more research in this area, especially from an intersectional and comparative perspective.